Input Jack: Women Solo Musicians

The Plight of Sologirl originally published at Grey Area

by Anne Adams - June 6th, 2010:

My recent show at Folklife prompts me to also address some more general themes that have emerged not only there, but elsewhere in my performance experience--little psychic obstacles I keep tripping over, on many stages.

Let me just say, for musical performance purposes, I'd rather be any of the other things that I am, than a girl. I don't really feel female when I play. Maybe I dress that way (and maybe I have to stop?) but I consider myself to be more of a narrator, a voice; sometimes, a medium or conjurer, and, as my buddy Tim once said, the town crier. That's the style I've come to; that's my way and my soul. World, can you stop making me regret that my guts are contained in an hourglass rather than a jar? 'Cause when I'm up there, I'm spilling them anyway.

And also, can we please make a better habit of listening to the way a given person plays (even if it's a female person), and put that person with stylistically compatible acts? I may just go slumber in a cave and you can wake me when it's finally time.

Actually, the next generation of musicians seems to have gotten beyond this problem. Newer bands are coming out now, nonchalantly co-ed, like gender isn't even a big whoop. But solo girls hold the last stigma, and the booking powers that be are often from the prior generation, and frankly still a little old-school.

So please let me debunk some assumptions. Just because I'm a female solo musician does NOT necessarily mean:

I don't have very much gear
I don't know the best way to set up/plug in my gear
I ought to act shy or modest
I should have to act masculine to earn your respect
I will be accessible or appropriate entertainment for young children or elderly people
I should open every show
I will sing about love and heartbreak
I'm an "afternoon" act
I'm a "cabaret" act
I'll fit in with every other female musician
My music will be relaxing or mellow
My music will be melodramatic
My music will be emotional and not intellectual
I'm not a geek for structure and theory
I want my audience members to try to date me
I am trying to be seductive from stage
I need to be saved
I owe you love
Stop assuming any of the above, and we'll get along just fine.

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Music for social change: Tim Minchin’s Pope Song

Tim Minchin is an Australian musician, actor, comedian and writer who has something to say about the A-1 top dawg of the Catholic Church:



Follow Tim Michin's on twitter: http://twitter.com/TimMinchin

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Goldie hooks it up!

THERE IS NO SHAME IN MY GAME! I'm on my hustle.



Alright. Here it is. This is my call to the PDX readers of CIM to consider switching from Comcast to Clear. I am ready and able to help you make that happen. You'll never have to share bandwidth again. Clear uses WiMax (wifi on crack). You will save mad dolla bills. Plans start at $20 a month. Have questions? Give me a call! -or- email me! goldiedavich (at) gmail (dot) com

Your's Sincerely with Love and Appreciation,
goldie

Not a fan of Comcast? Fuel the fire:

• A Washington student got a bit of a shock when he received an email from internet service provider Comcast about comments he had made on his blog. Read more...

• Thanks to the Computer Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) from May 2007, companies like Comcast have more latitude to spy on users for both the government and themselves. They are using this latitude now to hire someone whose sole purpose will be to spy on Comcast users. Read more...

• WASHINGTON -- On Friday, Comcast released the technical details of its current and future "network management" practices. This disclosure by the nation's largest cable company was required as part of the Federal Communications Commission's order last month sanctioning Comcast for blocking Internet users' access to lawful online content and services. Read more...

Tech analyst John Paczkowski reports on Comcast's decision to appeal the FCC’s precedent-setting ruling that Internet gatekeepers cannot block users' access to the free and open Internet:

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not about indie music per se!

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I don't care about indie music!

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a truely helpful iPhone feature you don't have, yet:

A smoke detector that calls 911 based on screams and heat levels and oxygen levels... you know what I'm talking about right?

"iPhone! Where are you!?!?!??!"

iPhone responds,"I'm here and I've called 911"

"I don't think I will make it!" her desperate cries fade into the flames.

"I will read you your last rights."

"I can never stay mad at you iPhone. Life is one be magical shuffle and I was lucky enough to have you show up on my playlist...goodbye"

This Idea is MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
I came up with this idea while I was with my best muse Maria just a minute ago.

next idea:

"I am ro-bong." the robot said. My beliefs about artificial intelligent evaporated. The hole in my heart was the shape of a ro-bong... and I never even knew.

"Ro-bong, I could never stay mad at you."

THE END

Good ideas? Or is it crap? You be the judge and tell me what you think.

Thanks a million,

Ste. Goldie

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

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the sound of my soul being murdered by portlands music scene

Will someone please dump a bucket of water on me so I can have some peace?

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[Real Talk] Fuck Journalists

I guess it's fashionable for journalists to tell the truth right now. Weird. As a blogger it is my civic and MORAL OBLIGATION to keep it real in times of war. So to jump all over this "McClellan Tell-All Exposes Media's Propaganda Problem" this is my official response:

Journalistic integrity?

Really? Fuck off..

Fuck you Scott McClellan.

Fuck you in your fucking face.

And just for good measure:
Fuck you Anderson Coooper and ALL OF THE VANDERBILTS!!!

PS -- to make this post music related:

I went to two shows last night. My friend Janna Blue's friend Ava who incidentally, has hosted a radio show, Severe Exposure, on KPSU (portland's college radio, 1450am/www.kpsu.org) for five years, was DJing at Ground Kontrol (it was free game night and Janna and I rocked the Simpsons pinball for a good 20 games) and it was the bomb. And then we went to Holocene and I tranced out for an hour... I have no idea who the DJ's were... but it was fun.

PPPS -- if you believe in signing online petitions this one might help with the whole "try to regulate the industrial war complex propaganda machine also known as the media" thing:
freepress.net

PPPPS --
CNN's Jessica Yellin revealed that news executives at MSNBC actively pushed her not to do hard-hitting pieces on the administration during the run up to the war in Iraq:

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Does PC-PDX know punk rock?

You be the judge. Talk amongst yourself.

The following is directly from PC-PDX with love and reposted with permission:


Punk Rock isn't a website or MUSIC or anything else but community and something close to a way of thinking. Punk is the ability to think for yourself and realizing that you don't have to accept the crap that's fed to you. Punk is the reasoning that you can make you own choices and that you can make it happen for yourself (DIY) and those around you (DIT!). Punk is about accepting and creating something new.
Whille PR is music, Punk is freedom, liberation of the mind from garbage that people give you. The music is one of many ways we express ourselves in this manor, but, there is much more then just the music.

When i talk about music it's THE music, not a style.

As far as the website goes..

It's not MY website, It's always referred to as THE Guide and it's operations are ALWAYS a 'WE', because it's about the musical community and building that community.
I don't give a shit about google hits either. It doesn't rate as a ego boost to me. I do state this stuff because i'm trying to communicate that people want this info but can't get it from anywhere else. People are interested, and this site is the somehow they use to get the info. In case you aren't aware, this scene that we are in now, amazing as it is, is very clicky and very exclusionary - which is the farthest thing from punk. Those are two adjectives which mean the opposite of punk. As awesome as the Portland PR scene is, it's difficult to get into because people are, knowingly or not, very exclusionary about letting outsiders in and that sucks.

The website is not a business, there never has been and NEVER will be one ad. I reap no benefit, the only benefit anyone receives is that we have a stronger scene.

If we really want to get into business and show promotion, and just how much "punk" kids hate business, let's all sit down and ask how we think it's acceptable to promote shows on myspace. Myspace; A cooperate entity withheld by Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. -How many ads a day do you see while posting flyers on your friends myspaces. -How "punk" is that? -How much money are they making off you -right now-?
How many NEW people do you reach by posting bulletins to people that have already added you to their friends?

We're never going to get anywhere if we can't communicate and build this scene for ourselves. There sure as hell isn't anybody else going to do it for us. The scene is what -we- make it, let work together and make it something good.

Being Punk doesn't mean you have to fight innovation and new ways of doing things. The whole purpose and birth of 'Punk' is about fighting the crap of the old, thinking for ourselves and starting something new that we control, something for us by us because we know we are smarter than the crap that they're feeding us.

Be open to innovation and ideas,
we are all in this for the music and the community that comes from this amazing scene we've all built together. This scene, right now, is on the brink of something huge and revolutionary. Think NY '77, DC '82 ... I've never seen anything anywhere, in all the places i've been throughout the states, like the amazing scene that Portland has right now. I know you're playing your part... we're doing ours. Let's Do It Together (DIT!) and make this something grand.


Much Love Portland, PC-PDX, all of us.




Click here to view PC-PDX Myspace
Click here to view PC-PDX website

I don't care. I like it when anyone anywhere talks about revolution. I like it when anyone anywhere talks real talk (thanks V. for my new favorite played out phrase for 2008 hugs). -- Ste. Goldie

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Attention Portland Indie Rockers: I want a Heroine!

CIMTB is compiling a list of Portland singer/songwriters and bands, using some of the list's we've had in previous blogs.

I've noticed that there isn't a band or a musician on there that represents bold, powerful, and intelligent women. Some of the women on the list are probably B.P.I., but their music doesn't strike that chord in me. I want to call attention to the fact that Portland has a bunch of musicians who regardless of gender are pretty damn boring and a-political. I am going to talk more about my disappointment with the women in music in Portland, only because I care about it. I want to fall in love with and feel empowered by a lady's, or girl's, or woman's, or whatever's music.

Call me old fashioned but I miss the trickle down from Olympia (riot grrls, women having their periods on stage while they are playing guitar). Granted I never listened to Sleater-Kinney (I can't remember why I boycotted them...) but I appreciate what they did with their time and talent. They didn't make me gag. So what? I grew up in the heyday of grunge. AND I lived in the northwest. So sue me if I want something a little more substantial than some cute indie girl, who sings like a little, itsy-bitsy, sleepy baby who wants to be naughty and who shops at the bin's and calls it a revolution... Or worse she doesn't shop at the bins.

I will try to keep it real up in here. I want this conversation to happen. I want to hear about how wrong I am. So please leave a comment or better yet, post your own blog about it if you want.

And, just because, I am going to share this video I found on the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls website:

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Are There Any Righteous Women Rockers In Portland?

...Or are they all gross? (lost balls on linking to a certain "lady")

"they crave boy attention... even if they are lesbians!" -- anonymous

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